Device for use in connecting wire ends



July 5, 1938. J. H. VAN VIERSENY 2,123,070

DEVICE FOR USE IN CONNECTING WIRE ENDS Filed Aug. 23, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet l /NVENTDR Jacob Hendrik van Vie/"sen Attornev July5, 1933- J. H. VAN VIERSEN 2,123,070

DEVICE FOR USE IN CONNECTING WIRE ENDS Filed Aug. 23, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 5.

FIG.4;

INVENTOR Jacuh' HQnEIPiK van ViEV'SEFI ATTORN EY 5 sulated wires.

Patented July 5, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DEVICE FOR USE IN CONNECTING WIRE ENDS Jacob Hendrik van Viersen, The Hague, Netherlands, assignor to Thabur, Industrieele en Technische Handelmaatschapplj N. V., The Hague,

Netherlands Application August 23, 1937, Serial No. 160,416 In the Netherlands July 1, 1936 11 Claims.

10' weakened and may even be torn off over the edges of the openings during twisting.

One object of the invention is to meet this imperfection and to provide a device, in which the wires are forced topass gradually into the 16' twist, so that no buckling or tearing off of the wire ends can occur.

In such devices however it is possible that the wire ends during twisting are pulled further through the openings. Therefore a further ob ject of'the invention is to provide a device in which the wire ends are fastened against the member before twisting.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a wire connector, which is cheapin man- 25 ufacture, is easy to handle, and is of compact 40 ing at the openings in the member.

construction.

In order to prevent breaking of the wire ends when twisting them above the ends of the bores or openings. in the member and in order to simplify the twisting, the member is preferably provided with a conical mandrel, around or above which the wire ends coming out of the openings are twisted together. By the aid of the mandrel the wire ends are gradually bent over the ends 5 of the openings and cannot be torn ofi over the edges.

In order to ensure that the wires will always be gradually bent, the surface of the mandrel may additionally be provided with grooves, endgrooves may be straight or curved. They are preferably curved in such manner as to match the twist of the wires.

If necessary the mandrel may further be provided with a central bore for inserting an extra wire end which then may act as a spindle or as an extension of the mandrel during twisting of the wire ends to be connected and thus avoid rupture during the twisting of brittle wires.

When the device according to the invention is used for conductiveiy connecting current carrying electric wiring it will be necessary, in order to avoid short circuits and danger of touching, to provide the member and the twisted'wire ends extending above it with an insulating cap.

These.

To this end the outer surface of the member may be totally or partly threaded and an insulating cap, of Bakelite", or porcelain, or the like can be screwed thereon. I

It is not always necessary that the mandrel form one unit with the member and the mandrel can alternatively be arranged on the member as a disconnectible part. In this case the mandrel can at the same time be used for fixing the wire ends before twisting.

The fixing of the wire ends before twisting can further be facilitated by arranging the bores or passages for conducting the wire ends near or in the outer wall of the member, so that longitudinal grooves or corrugations are formed in which the wires can be laid and which have such a depth, that the inserted wires extend partially out of them and can be easily fixed by means of a fixing ring screwed on the member. The extending wire parts, usually of soft copper wire, are then threaded and clamped at the same time, so that the wires are fixedly held.

It is obvious, that if the wires are held in this manner the subsequent twisting of the wire ends will be simplified, as only the short wire ends are movable with respect to the other parts of the wires.

In order to lock the fixing ring, the wire support is preferably provided with an abutment such as a ring connected with the wire support and against which the fixing ring can be screwed. Preferably the height of the fixing ring is equal tothe height of the wire support from the abutment, so that a device is obtained looking like one unit.

Particularly when conductively connecting cleaned wire ends of insulated conductors it will be of importance to make the wire support or the fixing ring or both from conductive material, so that the conductive connection is already completed in the device itself.

The abutment of the wire support, as already mentioned, may consist of a ring connected to the wire support, which may be provided with bores, through which the wire ends to be connected may be inserted and whereby they are already held before arranging the fixing ring. Of course the outer surface of the fixing ring may be angular to facilitate fastening of said ring by means of a screw wrench.

It is obvious, that by using the devices according to the invention, a large number of wires can be connected to a conductive unit, even far more than with the known devices. -When conductively connecting electric conductors, the device must be insulated after fastening the wires. This may be done with insulating tapeor like material. means of an insulating cap or casing which is screwed over the device.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood, the same will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a side view, partly in section, oi a member with an insulating cap and a number of electric wires which are twisted over the mandrel,

Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the member with mandrel and screw thread for the insulating cap,

Fig.3 is a top view of the member with mandrel.

Pig. 4 is a side view, partly in section, of a further construction according to the invention,

Fig. 5 is a side view, partly in section, of a device somewhat similar to that of Fig. 4, but without wiring, and showing a slightly modified arrangement,

Fig. 6 is a bottom view of the inside member of Fig. 4, and

Fig. 7 is a top view of the inner parts of Fig. 5 and shown partly in section.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 3 of the drawings, I is the member provided with a number of bores or passages I. These bores or passages need not always run parallel to and axially of the member I, but may run in diiierent directions according to requirements and they may have diiierent diameters and need not be arranged in a circle.

In the form shown it may be assumed that the device is used for the conductive connection of cleaned wire ends of insulated electric wiring comprising three thick wires and two twisted thinner ones, which latter are introduced through a single passage. The member i is provided with a mandrel 3 with corrugations 4 beginning at the ends of the passages 2. Above and around the mandrel the wires are twisted together. The device is closed by an insulating cap 8 arranged on the threaded portion I of the member I. An extra passage which may be arranged through the centre of the mandrel is indicated at 5.

The member i according to the invention may consist of wood, porcelain, "Bakelite or like ma terial, but for the conductive connection of wire ends of electric wiring it is preferably made from conductive material, which may form a conductive unit with the cleaned wire ends inserted through the bores. 'I'he'mandrel may be made irom the same material as the member I and it may as shown form one unit with said member. The insulating cap or casing may consist of porcelain, "Bakelite" or like material. In order to simpliiy the application of the cap or casing, the same may be provided with flat external wall portions, so that a screw wrench can be used.

In the construction shown at Figs. 4 and 6 the cleaned ends 3 of the wires are introduced into bores Iii extending through an externally screwthreaded member ii which receives an insulated cover or cap I! correspondingly screw-threaded at the interior thereof. An externally screwthreaded extension I3 is formed on the member H and has parallel external grooves forming continuations oi the bores i0 and adapted to receive the wires 3. A securing ring or sleeve i5 is applied to the extension I! and is internally screw-threaded to engage the screw threads of said extension and to engage and grip the outer surfaces of the wires. The member H serves as Preferably however it is effected by an abutment for the sleeve II when the latter is screwed into locking position.

g In the construction shown at Figs. 5 and I an insulated cover I. is applied to an externally screw-threaded fixing ring or sleeve II which is internally screw-threaded for engagement with an externally screw-threaded extension II on a member l9 which latter serves as an abutment for the sleeve i1 and is formed with bores or passages 20 for the reception of the wires while the extension I. is provided with external grooves 2i in alignment with the bores Ill so that the application of the ring or sleeve I! to the extension l8 fixes or clamps the wires in position. 0n the extremity of the extension II a mandrel 2! is provided and in the sides thereof grooves 23 are formed in alignment with and as continuations of the grooves 2i and the ends of the wires are twisted together over said mandrel 22 in the manner clearly illustrated at Fig. 4:.

As shown at Figs. 6 and '7, both these forms comprise centrally disposed bores 14 for additional wires to be twisted together with the wires in the outer bores in the manner above described in connection with the form of the device as illustrated at Figs. 1 to 3. The bores II and bores 2|, described above, have continuous side walls so as to surround completely the portions of the wires which extend therethrough.

The invention is not limited to the construc-- tions shown and described andmany other constructions are possible without departing irom the invention. Thus for instance the depth of the corrugations and the diameters oi the passages may be different, so that wires of different diameters may be connected together.

Having thus described the invention, I claim: 1. A device for use in connecting wire ends, comprising a cylindrical member with a plurality oi lengthwise bores therein having continuous side walls to receive the individual wires. a substantially conicalmandrel at one end of the member with its base located substantially in alignment with the inner suriaces of the bores to receive the wires projecting from the said bores. 2. A device of the character described ior use in connecting the ends of wires, comprising an inner cylindrical member having external screw threads, a plurality of bores extending lengthwise through said member to receive the individual wires to be connected, a tapered mandrel on one end of said member and formed with grooves to receive the wires protruding from the said bores, the grooves being tapered from the said member to the surface of the mandrel to direct the wire ends towards each other for twisting together without sharp bends, and an internally screwthreaded cap applied to said member.

- 3. A device of the character described for use in connecting the ends of conducting wires, comprising a cylindrical member, a circular group of wire-receiving bores extending lengthwise through said member, a conical mandrel extending from one end of said member within the circular group of bores, and tapered grooves in the surface of the mandrel extending only part of the length thereoi! to receive and lead the wires from the said bores to the outer surface of the mandrel towards the extremity thereof to direct the wires towards each other without sharp bends, and the wires being twisted together beyond the extremity or the mandrel.

4. A device of the character described for use in connecting the ends of conducting wires, comprising an internal substantially cylindrical member, a circular group of bores extending lengthwise through the member to receive the wires to be connected, a mandrel of curved and tapering form extending from one end of the member within the circular group of bores, tapered grooves formed in the surfaceoi the mandrel with their surfaces aligned with the innersurfaces of said bores, the mandrel and its grooves being formed to lead the wires towards each other without sharp bends, an additional bore formed ,in the center of the member and extending lengthwise therethrough to accommodate an additional wire around which the ends of the firstmentioned wires are twisted, and a cover for said member to enclose the twisted ends of the wires.

5. A device for use in connecting wire ends; comprising a member having bores with continuous side walls for the reception of the individual wires, an extension formed on said member, wirereceiving grooves formed in the extension in line with said bores, a conical mandrel on the end of said extension to receive wire ends extending from said grooves twisted together, and a screwthreaded fixing sleeve applied to said extension and engaging and clamping the wires.

6. A device for use in connecting the ends of conducting wires, comprising an inner cylindrical externally screw-threaded member, an internally screw-threaded locking ring thereon, an abutment formed on the member for engagement by said ring, a tapered mandrel formed on the opposite end of said member, wire-receiving bores extending through the abutment, and a groove aligning with each of said bores and formed in said member and extending through part of the length of the mandrel to accommodate the wire with the screw-threads of the locking ring holding the same in position and with the wire-ends bent and twisted together beyond the mandrel and without sharp bends.

7. A device .of the character described for use in connecting the ends 01. conducting wires, comprising an inner cylindrical member having external screw-threads, an internally screw-threaded fixing ring on said member, a plurality of external grooves extending lengthwise of said member to receive a plurality of wires adapted to be engaged and gripped by the internal screwthreads of said ring, and a tapered mandrel having external grooves therein and formed on the end of said member with its grooves forming extensions of the grooves in said member to direct the wires towards each other without sharp bends.

8. A device of the character described for use in connecting the ends of conducting wires, comprising a cylindrical externally screw-threaded and longitudinally grooved member, an internally screw-threaded locking ring upon said screwthreaded'member, a cylindrical abutment engaged by one end of the said ring, bores formed in said abutment in alignment with the grooves in the said member to lead the wires therethrough, a conical mandrel on the end of the said member, grooves extending only part of the length of said conical mandrel and being continuations of the grooves in said member to lead the wires into position to be twisted together without sharp bends.

9. A device of the character described for use in connecting the ends of conducting wires, comprising a cylindrical externally screw-threaded and longitudinally grooved member, an internally screw-threaded locking piece thereon, an abutment piece formed on the member for engagement with the locking piece, an external screwthread on one of said pieces, an internally screwthreaded cap for engagement with said screwthread, a mandrel formed on the end of said member, wire-receiving grooves extending part of the length of said mandrel and forming extensions of the longitudinal grooves in said member, and bores formed in the abutmentpiece in alignment with said longitudinal grooves.

10. A device for use in connecting the ends of conducting wires, comprising a part with wirereceiving bores therein, an externally screwthreaded and grooved member 'foriiflgd on one end of the said part with its grooves in alignment with the bores, a conical mandrel on the end of the member to receive the ends of wires extending through the bores and the grooves and to facilitate the twisting of the wire ends around each other without sharp bends, a fixing sleeve applied to the said member to .clamp the wires in the grooves, and an internally screw-threaded covering cap applied to said sleeve.

11. A device for use in connecting the ends of conducting wires, .comprising a cylindrical externally screw-threaded part with wire-receiving bores therein, an externally screw-threaded and longitudinally grooved member on, one end of said part with its grooves in alignment with said bores, a tapering mandrel on the end of the said member to receive the ends of the wires extending through the bores and grooves and to facilitate the twisting of the wire ends around each other, a locking sleeve applied to the member to clamp the wires in the grooves, and an internally screw-threaded insulating cap applied to the screw-thread on the said cylindrical part. JACOB HENDRIK van VIERSEN. 

